It might be difficult to understand what's going on in this picture. A girl with a straw, blowing paint on to some cardboard? All will be revealed as I relate our second Monday in a row running a children's Holiday Club.
This week we collected some huge cardboard boxes (thanks Ilir!), flattened them and then built two cardboard houses, one stuck together with eight rolls of sellotape, the other with less than one roll of Gorilla tape (other strong tapes are avaliable). The one with sellotape came apart as soon as we tried to stand it up.
No matter how much sellotape we used, it was a flop, but the children still painted it. It wasn't strong enough to take a roof and looked rather foolish.
The one wisely stuck together with a minimum of Gorilla tape, however, was a great success. It easily took a roof and was much easier to paint.
So, there we have it. Two houses built of the same raw material, one stood, the other collapsed, one was wisely stuck together with Gorilla tape, the other foolishly stuck together with sellotape.
This is remarkably similar to a story told by Jesus, about two builders, one wise - a builder on rock - the other foolishly building with sellotape. Something like that, anyway. The children loved the activity, including and especially the girl at the top of this blog. Her highly original painted window reflects her love of art and I believe this activity was therapeutic for her. One night, three years ago, her family were in a house fire. She, her mother and siblings were saved, but their father, a local pastor, died. The children attended our holiday club because their mother was in hospital receiving chemotherapy. Please do pray for this heartbreaking situation.
We had a lot of other fun activities as well, including this one. Our most challenging child (also the youngest) found it difficult to keep still, quite apart from following instructions. However, when it came to the 'cover a child in toilet paper' activity, he was very keen to participate and he kept still for all of two minutes. (If you have any concerns, please do not phone Social Services.) Other activities included making Rocky Road rice cakes. Margaret was in her element.
It was a really successful day with the children. In the evening we were treated to more cardboard boxes.
Many of you will recognise these shoe boxes, though maybe not at this time of year. This well known annual Christmas appeal has benefitted many children in Kosova (and many other countries) over the years. Well, the church we are partnering here has taken up the challenge to do them locally, thereby reversing the 'receiving-aid' culture which developed after the 1999 war and encouraging local people to give to this excellent project. To that end, the Hope team have been collecting empty shoe boxes from a local shoe shop, wrapping them up and filling them with goodies as examples for a show case evening which took place after the children's club.
Here are Diana and pastor Jeton explaining the scheme. The headteacher of the largest school in Gjakova (1,500 pupils) came, as well as the city's director of children's services. When the headteacher spoke he related how, as a young man, he had got into body building to support his passion for swimming. His father had told him that building his body through exercise was good, but not as important as building his heart through the exercise of caring for others. A point well made and very relevant to this initiative. Here he is.
(extra pics thanks to Helen)
